Penguins Over the Wires: X Servers for Windows

Going with X on the Network

January 12, 2001

By
Michael Hall

When my DSL connection began to behave erratically recently, I was
given a choice: keep on running Linux and putting up with the hassles
of a connection that came and went on a whim, or get a working Windows
98 install up long enough to let the technician diagnose the problem.

I had several other choices to make along with that, like maybe
deciding to swap a few NICs around the home network, drag some cables
out, or even just put up with the inconvenience for a day and
live out of my Linux laptop, which is a comfortable enough machine
if you don't mind the touchpad and smallish keyboard with its accursed
capslock key.

As a database administrator in a Windows/Netware shop not too long
ago, I'd had a clandestine Pentium running Linux under my desk to run
my favorite apps, so it wasn't a big stretch for me to imagine using
one of the numerous ports
of ssh to Windows to connect to the Linux laptop over my LAN and
live in the shell for the day. It might be a drag to deal with Emacs
in a small terminal window, and I'd miss gnomecal, my address book,
and a few other X-based conveniences, but at least I'd be able to work
on a Linux machine without aggravating my carpals or rubbing a shiny
spot on the tip of my thumb from the touchpad.

This proved unsatisfactory after a short while, stinking, as it did,
of the sort of humdrum practicality that gets the garbage to the curb
on Tuesday but does little for the advancement of knowledge about
interesting things you can do while you're waiting for a technician to
call and announce they aren't about to let you out of your service
contract.

So I found myself looking for another way. Enter the MicroImages MI/X and Labtam WinaXe X
servers for Windows. These two products allow you to run X
applications over the network on a Microsoft Windows machine with
differing levels of configurability, cost, and facility. They make it
possible, for instance, to do everything from bringing up a simple
xterm to running a full-blown desktop environment. There is a free port of XFree using the Cygwin
tools, (another wonderful set of tools for Linux lovers exiled in
Windowsland) but issues surround running it on Windows 9x at this
stage, which ruled it out for my purposes, since the technicians
refuse to troubleshoot anything but Win9x installs.